1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to manufacturing optical waveguides, components, and products, and more particularly to an apparatus and method to collect soot for use in manufacturing the same.
2. Technical Background
Optical component manufacturing experiences great difficulties with attenuation in its glass melts. This is at least partially due to the difficulty and expense in obtaining batch materials of sufficient purity. A need presently exists to produce and collect soot produced by waveguide burners, which is intrinsically of a higher purity. Not only is the purity issue a source of difficulty, but also is the ability to dope optical components with fluorine.
Fluorine doping is important in certain components since fluorine lowers the index of refraction in certain optical component profiles. Examples of optical components that require xe2x80x9cdownxe2x80x9d doping (for a lower index of refraction) include large effective area fibers. Another critical use of fluorine doping is in multi-component glasses used for amplification in fiber systems. In at least both of these cases, delivering and retaining fluorine in the glass has proven extremely difficult especially to do so at higher levels.
A reason for the difficulty in retaining fluorine at higher levels is due to, but not limited to, the relatively higher temperatures at which the prior approaches operate. Prior art approaches include such techniques as having a 2000xc2x0 C. flame substantially proximate to the deposition which tends to bake out or at least substantially lower the fluorine content in the deposited material. The higher operating temperatures of the prior art approaches tend to vaporize the fluorine from the soot.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages as well as others. In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a method and apparatus is provided for manufacturing optical components. In one aspect of the present invention, a surface area collector has a plurality of collection surfaces arranged to form a chamber where one of the surfaces has an aperture. A burner is in communication with the aperture and disposed such that the soot collected in the chamber is substantially unaffected by subsequently deposited soot. The chamber operates at relatively low temperatures sufficient to retain rather volatile substances, such as fluorine, in the soot. Thus, the lower temperature environment of the surface area collector has substantial advantages versus a 2000xc2x0 C. environment of the prior art.
In another aspect of the present invention, a burner generates soot that is received by a substrate. At least one magnetic force generator directs the soot to be deposited on the substrate. In this way, a more efficient deposition is achieved.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, and in part will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from that description or recognized by practicing the invention as described in the detailed description which follows, the claims, as well as the appended drawings.
It is to be understood that both of the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are merely exemplary of the invention, and are intended to provide an overview of framework for understanding the nature and character of the invention as it is claimed. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate various features and embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles and operation of the invention.